Creating a Life Purpose Statement

Much of our Executive Leadership coursework revolved around the idea of self-leadership as being step one in the leadership readiness arsenal. To this end, we did a lot of work on our personal and professional leadership point of view.

An excerpt from my journal, July 2014:

Life Purpose Statement

I have spent a lot of time over the past few years learning from a variety of difficult and painful life lessons as well as experiencing many joyous, inspiring and beautiful moments. From these experiences I believe my life purpose to be this:

Love deeply and fully and without fear

Lead an interesting life with rich experiences

Be clear in my purpose and encourage others to define theirs as well

Advance my expertise in Culture, Leadership and Organizational Development

Write about what matters most to me

Develop and build skills in myself and others

Create calm and peace in our busy world

Teach my child well

Continuously learn and have fun in the process

Advance the understanding of what is enough for a satisfying life

Celebrate what I already have and have achieved

This didn’t just roll out of my head on to the paper. This took thought, reflection, courage, patience, and an iterative mindset. It takes many months and a willingness to refine and revise. One question to jumpstart your thinking: When you are at the end of your life, what do you want to not have regrets about? What will you want to say you’ve achieved? You can start crafting yours today…you will know when you’ve gotten to the essence of what your life purpose is. At that time, you are done…until your perspective changes and you decide to edit further. Keep it handy to review regularly. This creates a life-long practice of staying clear on what matters most to you, at whatever stage of life you are in. Enjoy!